


The Moon-Birds

by flippyspoon



Series: Pour Some Sugar on Me [5]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 15:43:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12867777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon
Summary: Where Billy goes on Friday afternoons.





	The Moon-Birds

Billy stuck his cig in his mouth and reached up to pull the grating down, squinting as the familiar rumble of its closure broke the silence on Hawkins’ main drag. It had been a slow day at Video Kingdom, which made it seem even longer than hours full of annoying customers. But Steve was picking him up and now the best part of the day could begin. 

Billy was carrying a paper bag and stuck it under his arm as he secured the padlock and then he spun around, bouncing on his toes.

The next day was Friday and he wasn’t working at all, but Steve was. Billy had planned to pay a visit to Hopper’s cabin that afternoon. He pretended it was an impulsive decision, even though he’d made a visit there every Friday afternoon for the past few weeks.

Billy opened the paper bag and glanced at his contents for the tenth time in a day, as if it might have changed somehow. He felt funny about it. He felt silly and soft. He hadn’t even told Steve about what he did on Friday afternoon at Hopper’s cabin. Though, of course, Hopper knew. Hopper was always there when Billy visited, doing paperwork at his little kitchen table and occasionally looking up to smile fondly to himself.

Billy spotted the BMW driving up and Billy walked out and around to the passenger side, hopping in.

“Hey, babe,” Billy said, and leaned in to give Steve kiss.

“Hey yourself,” Steve said. He nodded at the paper bag. “Whatcha got there?”

“Ah, nothin’.” He shrugged easily, and prayed Steve would not pursue it.

Steve pursued it.

“Can I see what it is?” He was smirking the way he did when he liked to needle Billy.

“It’s just a thing I picked up, it’s nothing.”

“A thing.”

“Yeah.”

“What thing?”

“I was just picking it up for Hopper.”

“Then what’s the big deal?”

“Jesus Christ, Steve.”

By the time they’d reached Steve’s house, Billy knew he had lost. They sat in the BMW in the driveway and Steve gave him that sweetheart smile that meant he’d won and also that he knew Billy wasn’t actually mad.

“Please.” He made puppy eyes at Billy who sighed heavily and handed him the paper bag.

Steve opened it like it was a Christmas present and frowned.

“Where the Sidewalk Ends,” he read from the cover of the shiny white book. “What is this for?”

“It’s just…” Billy lit himself another cigarette.  “It’s for Eleven, alright?”

“Oh.” He raised an eyebrow. “This is what you do on Fridays?”

Billy was mortified but on the other hand it was Steve and Steve knew every secret Billy had thought he’d never be willing to tell anyone.

“Yeah, alright. I was over there a while ago with Max and ya know, Eleven’s trying to learn to read more and she gets really frustrated with people about it, even Hopper, and I just sort of ended up… I dunno, you know we get along in a way that she doesn’t get along with everybody else.”

Steve looked at Billy as if he had just transformed into a particularly tiny kitten. “You’re…you’re teaching Eleven to read?”

“I mean not…formally,” Billy said. “We just kind of go through books. She picks things up. So I’m bringing her stuff I liked as a kid.”

“Where the Sidewalk Ends,” Steve said, flipping through the weighty book of poems.

“Yeah,” Billy said quietly. His fingernails suddenly seemed very interesting.

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends,” Steve read. “And before the street begins…”

“And there the grass grows soft and white,” Billy continued, without having to look at the page. “And there the sun burns crimson bright.”

Steve looked surprised and Billy shrugged. “My mom used to read it to me a lot. It was my favorite.”

Steve handed him the book and his lips twitched. “I love you,” he said.

“Okay. Shut up.” But he managed a smile.

The next day Billy showed up at the cabin and knocked on the door with the secret knock taught to him by Hopper after some initial trepidation.

Hopper greeted him at the door with a nod. “Hey, kid.”

Billy was eighteen now and had graduated from high school and Hopper had been forced to arrest him a couple times during a particularly dark period which had ended with Neil getting forcibly excised from the house and Billy sobbing on Hopper’s shoulder.

“Hey, Chief,” Billy said.

“Billy?”

Billy heard Eleven’s holler from the sofa and went out to meet her. She was holding a giant glass of chocolate milk in her hands and her eyes were big as he walked in.

“Chocolate milk,” she declared. “You need to try it.”

“I dig chocolate milk,” Billy said.

“You haven’t tried this chocolate milk,” Eleven insisted.

“You want some chocolate milk?” Hopper said.

Billy said on the couch and said, “Uh sure.”

When he had disappeared into the kitchen Billy said to Eleven, “Ya know what’s awesome is Dr. Pepper in the chocolate milk.”

“Whoa.”

“I’ll bring some next time,” Billy said.

“What are we reading?” Eleven said.

Billy revealed the book and Eleven’s eye became yet larger. “It’s a big book.” She looked intimidated by it and a little of Billy’s heart broke.

“Oh,” Billy said. “Yeah. But look…” He thumbed through it. “It’s poems. See?”

“Poems,” Eleven repeated.

“Yeah,” Billy said. “They’re like…little pieces of stories. Sort of. Like songs!”

“Metallica,” Eleven said.

“ _Exactly_.”

Hopper brought Billy his chocolate milk and gave him a look that made Billy feel about six-years-old in a way that wasn’t terrible.

“This was my favorite book when I was a little squirt,” Billy said. “My mom used to read it to me. And then I learned to read it.”

“I like when you talk about your mama,” Eleven said.

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “So, you want me to go ahead?”

Eleven often got nervous reading in front of anyone at first, but Billy had found if he started, she would pick up and continue as she got comfortable. She nodded and took a sip of her milk.

Billy began to read and Eleven paid close attention to the words as he went.

He paused at the end of the first stanza and sure enough, Eleven went on to read:

“Let us leave…this place where the… ssss-smoke blows…black…

And the dark street winds… and bends…

Past the… pits where the… as-as…”

Eleven bit her lip.

“Asphalt,” Billy said and pointed at the word. “P-h has that weird f sound?”

“As…phalt,” Eleven said. “Past the pits where the asphalt…flowers grow.”

Eleven stopped and Billy thought she was having trouble but instead she was looking at Billy as if she’d unlocked some epiphany.

“It’s about leaving the Upside Down,” Eleven said. “The dark.”

“Yeah,” Billy said, nodding. And he patted her back. “I think it’s about leaving the dark too.”

  
  


 


End file.
